Snapdeal acquires mobile transactions platform FreeCharge

Bengaluru, Apr 8: Snapdeal on Wednesday announced the acquisition of mobile transactions platform, FreeCharge, in what the online marketplace calls as "one of the largest acquisitions" in the Indian digital commerce space.

However, the company did not disclose the deal's value.

"This is one of the biggest acquisitions in the history of the Internet industry in India and sets up Snapdeal to build the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem in India," Snapdeal said in a statement.

Previously, Flipkart's acquisition of smaller rival Myntra (for an estimated Rs 2,000 crore) was pegged as the largest e-commerce deal in the country.

FreeCharge is a mobile commerce platform, which allows users to make payments for their mobile, DTH and other utilities across most major operators.

"At Snapdeal, we are building an ecosystem that powers billions of digital commerce transactions in the country in the coming years," Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said.

With this partnership with FreeCharge, Snapdeal has significantly enhanced its user base, he added. FreeCharge will continue to function as an independent platform.

It has a team of 200 professionals. The companies will collaborate to offer a seamless shopping experience to customers across both the platform's offerings.

"About 85 per cent of our transactions originate from mobile, these transactions have very high repeat customer behaviour.

"The partnership with Snapdeal comes at the right time, I foresee this as an opportunity to accelerate our roadmap in India and reach out to millions of users across the country," FreeCharge co-founder and CEO Kunal Shah said.

PTI